


Academy Days

by BeTheCheeto



Series: KakaYama Week 2019 [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, KakaYama Week 2019, Light Angst, M/M, Mentions of past abuse, schoolteachers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-05-15
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-05 16:39:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,822
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18832525
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeTheCheeto/pseuds/BeTheCheeto
Summary: Day 2 of KakaYama Week 2019: Modern Schoolteacher AUTenzo is just starting his new job, and hopes that he can escape his dark past that ties so closely in to so much of his new life. Can his new friends (and possibly more) help him to deal with the darkness in his past?





	1. The First Day of School

**Author's Note:**

> This is a chaptered fic due to length and will most likely not be completed by the end of KakaYama Week, but I will try to complete it as soon as possible. The plot kind of got away from me and took on a life of its own. Sorry not sorry. :/

Tenzo took a deep breath, staring up at the large stone building. Konoha Academy was a very prestigious school, attended by the children of powerful politicians and influential business personnel, a boarding school for them to send their bratty, entitled offspring to so that someone else got to deal with the repercussions of their lifetime of absentee parenting. To be honest, Tenzo wasn’t looking forward to this at all. He had grown up in the area, and remembered what the children that attended this school were like. 

He wasn’t looking forward to being the babysitter of troublemaking teens, but his architecture business had taken one too many hits in the declining economy, and its failure had left him with too much debt and no other options than to move into the home that had been abandoned with the death of his parents when he was only 8 years old, left to him because there was nobody else. He had spent 6 years in the group home under the care of a wretched man named Danzo, a cruel taskmaster who believed the children he was assigned to look after were of no use to him if they weren’t doing his bidding. Outside of following his wretched orders, the home had been a place where horrific and almost life-threatening bullying had been a daily occurrence, and Danzo ignored it until he thought that it might be enough to draw a visit from Social Services.

Things got a little better when Danzo’s friend Hiruzen Sarutobi had agreed to take him in. The man had seemed well-meaning, but his execution was awful. The circumstances he had put Tenzo in were little better than what he had left, though the treatment was kinder. Still, it hadn’t been enough to stop Tenzo from running away at the age of 16 to the big city. He found a job in an office building as a night janitor, and it was there that the magazines pilfered from the lobby for free entertainment had sparked his love of architecture. He had always been proud of what he had accomplished, all on his own. Getting his GED, a degree in architecture, and starting up a relatively successful firm. 

Unfortunately, in a failing economy, businesses don’t really get started, so when they stopped getting built, Tenzo stopped getting paid, and the bills began piling up. He had put it off as long as possible, but eventually had been forced to declare bankruptcy and move back to the home he had last seen from the back windshield of the police car as they drove him away from everything he had ever known. 

The job here was honestly his last resort, teaching brats about historical architecture for an insane sum of money. He wasn’t looking forward to it, as his ‘in’ at the school was none other that Hiruzen Sarutobi himself. The man he had actively avoided since his emancipation had apparently kept track of him, reaching out to offer assistance when his firm went belly-up. It wasn’t that Tenzo wasn’t grateful, because he was (at least, that's what he kept telling himself), but he was sure Sarutobi would remind him of a part of his life that was better left forgotten. 

He sighed and gathered his wits about him, stepping inside. He marveled at the beauty of the stone building, the intricacies of the design. It truly was marvelous structure, inside and out. He made his way down impeccably clean hallways to the Headmaster's office, lifting a shaking hand to knock. When the door opened to reveal none other that Hiruzen Sarutobi himself, Tenzo was shocked. When speaking to the man, he distinctly remembered that he had never mentioned he was the headmaster. “Mr. Sarutobi,” Tenzo said, recovering quickly and inclining his head in a show of respect. The man looked considerably older than he had the last time Tenzo saw him ten years ago. Apparently, these past few years had not been kind. 

His warm smile, however, was still ever-present. Despite it's friendly appearance, it still made Tenzo uneasy somewhere deep inside. He had never really figured out what it was about Sarutobi that made him uncomfortable, he only knew that the man did. “Tenzo. It is good to see you again.” 

Tenzo nodded, forcing a smile. “You, too, sir,” he lied. If Sarutobi noticed, he didn't mention. 

“Well, I'm afraid I'm quite busy with start of the year stuff this morning. Would it be alright if I escort you to the teacher's lounge and recruit one of your coworkers to show you around.” 

Tenzo nodded, resisting the urge to breathe a sigh of relief. “That would be fine.” 

Sarutobi filled the walk down with idle chit chat, catching Tenzo up on some of the history of the school and things like that. Tenzo was thankful that he kept the conversation impersonal. When they reached the lounge, Sarutobi opened the door, holding it for Tenzo to step past him. He squirmed when all eyes turned to him. Sarutobi followed him in. “Who's the new guy?” asked an absolutely gorgeous man with unruly silver hair.

Sarutobi raised a brow at him. “This is Tenzo. He will be the new architectural history teacher.”

“We have a class just for that?” a dark-haired, bushy-eyebrowed man asked, seemingly confused. 

Sarutobi laughed. “Yes, Gai, we do. Hell teach a few other things, as well, but that's his area of expertise. Tenzo, this is Gai, Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai.” He gestured at the bushy-browed man, the silver haired man, a very large, tan man with dark facial hair, and a woman with wavy brown hair and eyes unusually close to red respectively. 

Tenzo nodded, trying to hide the way he wiped his sweaty palms on his pants. “Hello,” he said, giving a general wave. 

Sarutobi looked to the silver-haired man. “Kakashi, since you don't have anything first period, would you mind showing Tenzo around? I have to deal with some unhappy parents.” 

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. “Already? I tell you, some of the kids that come through here…” He sighed. “All right, come on, newbie. Let’s see how long it takes for you to run screaming,” he finished with a wink. 

Gai looked disparagingly at Kakashi. “Kakashi, don’t scare the new teachers.” He turned to Tenzo, putting on a bright smile. “Honestly, don’t listen to him. He just likes messing with people. You’re going to love it here.”

Tenzo gave Gai a half-hearted, concerned smile. It didn’t speak much about the classes he would be teaching that even the teachers hadn’t heard of them. Kakashi made a tsk-ing noise from the door. Tenzo shook off the exchange and followed him. They walked down the hallway Tenzo had already taken silently. Just as Kakashi opened his mouth to start telling Tenzo about the school, the new teacher blurted, “It’s bad that even you guys don’t know about my classes, right?”

Kakashi chuckled, putting his hand on the back of his neck. “Uh, honestly, that’s just Gai. He really doesn’t pay attention to anything that’s not aggressively athletic.”

Tenzo raised his eyebrows. “So, the dumb jock type… got it.”

Kakashi shook his head. “Oh, no. Gai isn’t dumb by any stretch of the imagination. He simply doesn’t have the attention span to pay attention to things he doesn’t find interesting. He’s constantly spouting how life is a gift and we shouldn’t waste it, blah blah blah, and I guess to him studying something that’s not interesting to you is a waste.” He shrugged, turning back to the hallway and slouching down, hands in his pockets. 

Tenzo nodded, confusion on his face. “So… what does he teach, then?”

“Oh, this and that. He teaches A&P, kinesiology, and PE. He’s also the soccer and wrestling coach and assistant coach for track and baseball.”

Tenzo’s brows shot up again. “Wh- how does he do all that?! Three of them are in the same season!” 

Kakashi shrugged. “I guess. That’s why he’s only assistant coach of two. He goes to soccer games as priority, but the other coaches want his help because with his knowledge of the body, he gives great tips to the students, and his inspirational speeches actually get them really fired up.” 

Tenzo’s eyes widened. “Wow, I guess. He does seem to have a lot of energy…”

Kakashi chuckled again. “You don’t know the half of it…”

Tenzo nodded. “You seem like you know him pretty well.”

Kakashi laughed. “Yeah, well, we’ve known each other since we were, I don’t know, five or six? We went to school here together.”

“Oh. That’s quite a long friendship.”

Kakashi’s face went blank. “I wouldn’t say that…”

“Oh. Sorry, seems like a sensitive subject.”

Kakashi shook himself. “Yeah, it uh… it is. Oh, crap, here’s your classroom.” He looked around, frowning. “And we didn’t even talk about the school,” he muttered, as though talking to himself. 

Tenzo laughed nervously. “That’s okay. I actually probably know more about this place than a lot of people who work here.” 

Kakashi raised an eyebrow. “Really? You certainly do your research, apparently.”

Tenzo chuckled, looking around. “This place is actually what inspired me to be an architect. I grew up around here, and… well, I guess I don’t really need to go into it with a complete stranger. Point is, this place always made me think of stability growing up. I guess that just kind of made me fascinated with the ways in which it was strong.” He shrugged. 

Kakashi was looking him over in a considering manner. “No kidding…” he muttered. The bell shocked him out of his reverie before Tenzo could say anything, and he jolted a little, shooting Tenzo a crinkle-eyed smile. “Well, that means it’s time for the start-of-year assembly. Would you like an escort to the gym, newbie?”


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tenzo gets more than he bargained for when he goes out with his friends. The results, of course, are very pleasing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't think of anything for the prompt for today, so I decided to just update this one. Enjoy!

Tenzo’s new job was going well, if he did say so himself. He had been very concerned about how Sarutobi’s presence in his life again after so long would affect his mental health, but honestly he rarely if ever saw the man. Whether Sarutobi was avoiding him or simply too busy to be bothered with a part-time teacher, Tenzo wasn’t sure. If he was being honest, he really didn’t care, so long as the behavior continued. 

He had even managed to make friends with the teachers he had met his first day, as well as a few others. By nature, he was extremely introverted, usually spending time by himself reading architecture books. He had assumed that this new post would be no different, but then again, he hadn’t counted on Gai. The man could make a brick wall talk, he was sure of it. There was no end to the sunshine and rainbows that Gai’s presence shed on your world, and it was an intoxicatingly pleasant trait, if somewhat exhausting at times. 

It had been a few weeks now, and he found himself regularly in the company of a rather large group of teachers at their favorite local bar to blow off steam and complain about the kids in their class. It had all started the first day he had gone in for lunch duty, intending to sit quietly with his book and glance up occasionally to ensure the students were behaving as he remembered his teachers doing when he was in school. That plan was blown out of the water when out of nowhere, Gai’s arm was around his shoulders, chattering away at him as they veered straight towards the teachers’ table in the middle of the room. Eventually, Tenzo learned not to fight it and started sitting there on his own, eating with them every day and eventually accepting Gai’s hopeful request (once again) to join them for a drink. Those puppy-dog eyes of his were downright dangerous. 

He had managed to learn quite a bit about his new friends. Oddly enough, the only mystery still was Kakashi. Despite the relatively revealing conversation they had upon meeting, he hadn’t shared any more personal details about himself since. Tenzo had learned from conversing with the others (mostly Gai) that Kakashi taught mathematics, and had a genius IQ. He also sponsored the chess team, though more because Gai had worn him down into it than anything, it seemed. Apparently, there was no one who could strategize quite like him. Gai had also told Tenzo that Kakashi was ex-military. Special forces, to be exact. Gai said he had always been different than the other kids, a result of his genius that somewhat impacted his social ability in Gai’s opinion, but he came back from the war even odder. 

Knowing all this explained a lot about Kakashi. He lacked the desire to share anything about himself, but noticed every minute detail and wasn’t afraid to call someone out on a lie. He enjoyed outsmarting people, even his close friends, and was often pointing out things that anyone with common street smarts knew was not supposed to be talked about. Gai insisted he was better than he used to be, and Tenzo was sure that could be attributed to the man in green himself, seeing as how Kakashi seemed to use Gai as his moral compass, starting to say something and then pausing, looking to Gai for confirmation before blurting it.

He had quickly found himself fascinated by the veteran. He found every excuse to talk to the man, and often found himself walking away from the conversation, dumb-struck and realizing he had given a lot more to the exchange than he had taken away. To his surprise, that only made him more exciting. Tenzo would normally abandon a challenge socially. His awkwardness often made the attempt much too exhausting, but with Kakashi, pursuing him was as natural as breathing, even if he couldn’t work up the nerve to just ask him out like he’d like to.

Until one day when Tenzo was buying a round for the table. Kakashi offered to come with to help him carry them back, and while they were waiting for the bartender to fill the glasses, Kakashi leaned his hip against the bar, hands clasped with one elbow resting on the bar top as he studied Tenzo intently. The brunette squirmed under such close scrutiny. He gave Kakashi a nervous smile before turning his attention elsewhere, but he could still see that Kakashi was watching him through the mirror behind the bar. 

“So, Tenzo, what brought you back here? A woman?”

Tenzo jumped. He turned back to the silver-haired man. “Back?”

Kakashi smiled patiently. “Well, you said when we first met you grew up here, insinuating you haven’t lived here since childhood. Based on some of the other snippets I gleamed, the circumstances of your leaving weren’t great, so I’m assuming returning wasn’t your first choice.”

Tenzo swallowed nervously, shaken as always by just how much Kakashi seemed to know. “Um, well… just the job.”

Kakashi nodded, considering. “There aren’t jobs where you were?”

Tenzo cleared his throat. “Well, none that paid quite this well. Plus, the housing here is… cheaper.”

Kakashi raised a brow. “Is it? I pay as much here as I did when I lived in Kyoto.”

Tenzo flushed. “Well, I… I moved into my parents’ house.”

“Ah. So that’s why you didn’t want to come back. Difficult relationship?”

Tenzo looked down at the bar. “Not exactly… Look, Kakashi, if you don’t mind, I’d really rather not talk about it,” he said quietly. 

He looked up and Kakashi’s face had gone softer. Tenzo had the feeling that once again, Kakashi had learned more than he had intended to give him. The bartender brought over the drinks, and Tenzo rushed to scoop them up. Kakashi placed a hand gently on his arm. “Let me help. Please.” 

Tenzo set them back down and they divided them. Before Tenzo could pick up his portion, Kakashi said his name, and he looked over. The man looked decidedly nervous, and it was honestly the first emotion Tenzo had ever seen on his face. “Do you think, maybe, that you’d like to get dinner sometime?”

Tenzo swallowed. “With-with you?”

Kakashi nodded. “That would be the idea, yes.”

Tenzo nodded, nervously wiping his hands on his pants. “Like… like a date?”

Kakashi smiled, but you could see he didn’t think this was going well. “Well, ideally, yes.” Before Tenzo could answer, he chuckled embarrassedly and went to gather the drinks. “You know what, forget it. I shouldn’t have asked. You never mentioned about the woman… you probably have some hot babe.”

Tenzo grabbed his arm quickly, causing the drinks in his hands to slosh over their rims. “No, I… I don’t. I’m not. Straight, that is.” Kakashi looked up, interested. “And… yes, I’d love to go out with you.” Kakashi’s grin was blinding, and Tenzo found that he was grinning like a fool as they headed back to the table. He couldn’t wait for that date. 


End file.
